


A Game of Clothes

by Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas



Category: Tales of Berseria
Genre: Multi, Strip Poker, Suggestive Themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 16:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15733656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas/pseuds/Lord_of_Spirits_and_Bazongas
Summary: After the group finds their way to an inn, Magilou comes up with an unusual way to spend some time together.





	A Game of Clothes

It had been a long day by the time the group found their way to an inn. Laphicet, naturally, was the most exhausted of them and soon enough, he went inside of Eleanor to get some much needed rest. While the rest of the group was weary and tired as well, none of them could get any shut eye this soon, so instead they decided to keep themselves company. Given how the central area of the inn was occupied, and how it was dangerous for word of their whereabouts to spread, the group had decided to instead enjoy themselves in the privacy of their shared room. With Velvet’s mere title as the fearsome Lord of Calamity, that itself was enough to send people into a hysterical, fear driven frenzy.   
  
“Well, I did manage to yank us a bottle of booze,” Rokurou said excitedly.    
  
Eizen was quick to nod in mutual agreement, but the ladies weren’t all that keen on the idea of the night being filled with just booze and stories about fighting or ancient history. While history was up Eleanor’s alley, sometimes Eizen’s excitement was too much for a geek like her to handle.   
  
“I’d very much like it if we came up with something that didn’t just revolve around alcohol, considering that it seems like only you two are that into it,” Eleanor said.   
  
“Well, I wouldn’t mind a sip myself, but I get pretty horny when I’m drunk,” Magilou giggled in response. Before she could shake her hips for too long, Velvet hit her with her elbow.   
  
“Well if that’s the case, then I assume you’re always tipsy,” Velvet grunted. Turning her gaze from the smirking, clearly amused witch to the red haired exorcist, Velvet nodded in agreement with Eleanor’s statement. “But I do agree with Eleanor. I’d like to do something before calling it a day, but we can’t exactly just hang out freely, given our… circumstances,” Velvet said with a weary sigh as she looked at her bandaged arm. It was a constant reminder of who she was, as if the vivid nightmares weren’t enough. For now, though, what she wanted above all else was the luxury of driving away such thoughts, even if only for a brief moment.

  
Rokurou and Eizen changed glances. They could spend any day they wanted sharing stories and drinks, but now that they were all here, it’d be just selfish to try to get everyone to go with what they wanted. They were a dysfunctional group; a rag tag family, as one might put it, but still, somehow they did all pull through in the end. “Well, what do you have in mind then?” Eizen asked after putting his own bottle aside.   
  
Velvet barely had time to open her mouth before Magilou yanked the metaphorical microphone from her hands. “Poker!” She shouted with so much excitement that Eleanor visibly gasped, clearly still not completely used to Magilou’s eccentric nature.   
  
“Um… I don’t think I have enough spare gald to play poker,” Eleanor mumbled in response.   
  
“And it’s not that good without money. There needs to be something on the line for it to be interesting. And I’m not playing for cleaning or cooking duties either,” Rokurou commented.   
  
Magilou’s trademarke mischievous smirk quickly appeared in an instant. It was clear that she had expected this sort of outcome, but as one would expect, she came prepared. “Well my lovely doves of various shapes and sizes--” Magilou said, paying extra attention to Velvet’s now frowning forehead before continuing: “--you don’t have to worry your cute little heads, for I came prepared!” Standing up, Magilou posed in a dramatic fashion, as if she was giving them a speech before they’d board an enemy ship.   
  
“Get on with it,” Velvet grunted.   
  
“Cut me some slack, will you? I’m trying to get people excited. You’re just not comedy routine material, you know?” Magilou pouted back at Velvet before she returned her attention to everyone in the room. “That’s why we’re not playing just any poker, but strip poker!”   
  
The responses varied greatly. Rokurou and Eizen seemed to instantly be on board with the idea. Rokurou in particular. Velvet and especially Eleanor were clearly more hesitant.   
  
“Well, I’m game,” Rokurou said, grinning widely much like he did after a good battle.   
  
“Count me in as well. I can even ditch the coat beforehand,” Eizen nodded.   
  
Magilou felt like pointing out that with Eizen’s curse, he’d be out of the game in no time, but she didn’t want to bruise Eizen’s ego, so she simply smiled back at him before turning her attention to the leader of their group and the now blushing exorcist sitting next to her. “Well, how about you two? Up for a game?” Magilou cooed.   
  
Velvet seemed to be rather conflicted about the whole ordeal. This was definitely different than what Rokurou and Eizen had originally planned, yet at the same time out of her comfort zone. While Velvet had done deeds as of late that the village girl Velvet wouldn’t have even dreamt of doing, this was still something she wasn’t all that sure about. After giving it some thought, she hesitantly nodded with a weary grunt escaping past her tightly shut lips. “Fine, whatever. But you better not try anything funny, or else…”   
  
When it came to threatening Magilou, at least when it was Velvet doing it, the impact wasn’t exactly there, given how she seemed to strive off the fact that she could easily get under Velvet’s mostly thick, or rather, exposed skin. “Or else…~?”   
  
Velvet didn’t even bother trying to come up with a threat, as she noticed Magilou squirming oh so happily from the mere thoughts of being roughened up. Before things would get too steamy for the rest of the group to be in the room with them, their collective attention turned to the one person who hadn’t made up their mind just yet.   
  
Eleanor was glancing down at the hem of her dress, her grip on her chair tightening. In the Abbey, temptations of gambling alone were forbidden, but this was taking that to a whole new level. While Eleanor didn’t exactly retain those values and teachings anymore, she still wanted to believe in herself to be pure and righteous. However, she couldn’t deny the fact that she did find the daemons she stood besides not just her allies in arms, but appealing to look at as well. For the longest of time, Eleanor had been able to keep her bisexual side to herself and under control, but the more she found herself looking at Velvet’s torn clothes and Rokurou’s slightly open kimono, the harder it was for her to simply try and ignore her innermost urges. “F-Fine, I’ll… I’ll p-play too.”   
  
Everyone in the room cheered one way or another, but Magilou was the one who went as far as to whistle. “That’s my girl! Now you’re truly speaking like the proper villain that you are. The thirst of bare flesh gets the best of all of us after all,” Magilou squirmed in obvious delight.   
  
“M-Magilou! Leave such thoughts to yourself…!” Eleanor huffed, her head now hanging down as she tried to hide her rosy cheeks from everyone else. She couldn’t exactly deny her claims either, which made the situation all the worse.   
  
Soon enough, a conjured stack of cards appeared in the middle of the room. Grabbing the cards, Velvet shuffled through them before turning her frowning gaze back onto Magilou. “Why do all of these cards have your face on them?”   
  
Magilou simply shrugged in response. “Well, at one time, I wanted to go into the business of making cards, but it turns out that being hunted by exorcists is bad for business. Who could have known?” Grabbing the cards from Velvet’s tight grip, Magilou throw the stack into the air. With a snap of her fingers, the cards started to shuffle themselves before moving to float  between Rokurou and Eizen. “Well, I want to play too, so our dealer will be… well, this arte of mine.”   
  
Already Velvet was getting suspicious if Magilou could read the cards that her conjured arte was shuffling, but she didn’t want to be the party pooper now that even Eleanor was in the mood to shed clothes..    
  
“Fair enough. Although you don’t really have much to show to begin with,” Rokurou chuckled.   
  
“I can testify to that,” Velvet added with a snarky tone.   
  
“Hmph, you people just can’t appreciate the fine curves of a beauty such as I,” Magilou huffed with a shake of her hips. “And besides, it doesn’t really seem to bother you all that much, now does it~?” Magilou teased Velvet back, her fingers idly trailing right underneath Velvet’s sharp chin. Before the atmosphere would get too steamy, even without anyone losing any clothing yet, Eleanor yanked Magilou to sit down. Now it wasn’t just her who had a blush coloring their cheeks, as Velvet had a similar, be it slightly more faint spot on her face.   
  
“Anyhow, let’s get started then, shall we?” Eizen proclaimed.   
  
“Yeah!” Rokurou nodded excitedly. Putting Stormhowl behind his back, he too was now properly prepared to play some cards, even though he knew beforehand that, despite only showing half of his face to everyone, his poker face wasn’t anything to write home about.   
  
“Well then, let’s get started then, shall we?” Magilou suggested. After some shuffling, the room was set for the game to begin. With everyone set, Magilou’s arte started to spew out cards for all of them until everyone had a pair of cards in their hand.   
  
Everyone was doing their best to make it harder for others to read what they were holding. Pretty much everyone was surprised by the strength of their hand, expect for one person; Eizen. The Reaper’s Curse was instantly going to be his downfall, and soon enough when it came down to call or fold, it was Eizen who found himself losing time and time again. It didn’t seem to matter how bad of a hand everyone else had, as luck would have it, it was Eizen who was soon without his coat, jacket, boots, pants and shirts.   
  
“It’s part of man’s honor to play until the very end,” Eizen said, his face as serious as always as he was now standing tall and proudly wearing nothing but some surprisingly skin tight underwear. Magilou in particular seemed to enjoy the sight that was presented to them, with Eizen’s glistering abs and the form that his underwear couldn’t really hide doing his form justice.   
  
“I-I think we c-can call it a quit here, I-I mean that… he’s out now, right?” Eleanor asked with a nervous chuckle.   
  
“Boo, don’t be a party pooper. After all, that’s our dear leader’s job,” Magilou snorted.   
  
“I think that is enough,” Velvet stepped in, gesturing for Eizen to step aside to give the rest of them more space to play.   
  
“Aaw, not you too! We can go topless though, right?” Magilou asked.   
  
Blinking a few times, Velvet found herself in disbelief by Magilou’s antics yet again, much to her own surprise. “Why are you so eager to get naked?”   
  
Magilou shrugged in response. “I don’t know, it’s pretty hot in here I suppose. And I might be eager to see someone other than me topless,” She cooed again.   
  
With a weary sigh, Velvet gestured for Magilou to continue. “Just deal the cards again, will you?”   
  
“With pleasure, our beloved mistress of doom and destruction~!”   
  
The few following rounds where a bit more even, but soon enough, the girls of the group found themselves cornering the swordsman. In many ways, the game of cards was also a simple process of elimination, where the strong went after their weakest link of the chain. While Rokurou certainly could carry himself in terms of combat, when it came to being cunning, he was admittedly beaten. Velvet had given up her torn coat and metal boots, Eleanor was now barefooted herself, and Magilou had decided to first ditch the book-skirt, and was now proudly prancing without the books covering her underwear.   
  
While the girls did still have most of their clothes on, Rokurou was already topless with only sandals and his underwear to his name. Desperate times called for desperate measures, but it seemed like not even going all in would be enough to save him. Eleanor was doing her best to keep Rokurou in the game. She wasn’t sure herself if it was because she felt sorry for him, or because sitting right besides him gave her an ample view of that honed body of his. It was hard for Eleanor to focus on her hand or what cards were dealt when already in her mind her hands were trailing over those abs.   
  
“Eleanor, call, raise or fold?” Magilou asked, snapping his fingers in order to get Eleanor’s attention. With a gasp, Eleanor jolted awake. Shaking her head, she tried to get a hold of herself, but it was quite clear to everyone in the group where her mind had wandered off to. “U-Um… c-call…”   
  
It didn’t take long from there for Rokurou to throw his sandals into the big pile of clothes and for him to join Eizen. Shuffling their way to make the most out of the space, the girls sat apart from each enough so that they couldn’t see the cards the others were holding. While Eleanor and Magilou found themselves glancing at the guys who were observing the game from a bed, Velvet kept her eyes on the cards for the most part. For her, she had known ever since spending nights alone with Niko that it was women only who got her interest, even ones as initially unappealing as Magilou. Now though, she was keen on winning, with everything else being a bonus, especially given how the sight of naked Magilou was one she got to see more or less daily these days.   
  
“Those girls are tough as nails,” Rokurou shook his head in dismay. “But at least we can still enjoy ourselves.”   
  
Eizen chuckled before nodding. “You got that right.”   
  
After a quick water break, the game continued.   
  
The next few rounds were more even than before, with everyone taking small hits along the way. Magilou had ditched her shoes and her socks and her comically oversized hat, while Velvet had ditched some belts and her torn leggings, but keeping the actual pants of her outfit still on. As for Eleanor, the exorcist was almost out of her frilly dress, the blue sleeves joined up the pile, exposing her shoulders.   
  
Now with none of them having that much to cover up the skin that they mostly just kept to themselves, the game got truly serious. Each of them glanced at one another after the cards were dealt, and when the flop was revealed, those glances got all the more intense. The cards in their hands were the key of keeping their dignity in the form of their clothes, and even Magilou, who didn’t seem to know the concept of dignity, was doing her best to keep the game interesting.   
  
“Ready to show us your Puppies of Calamity, Velvet~?” Magilou cooed, hiding her obvious smirk behind her cards.   
  
“At least I have something to show,” Velvet smirked back. It was perhaps a cheap shot to make, but Velvet had been trained to make sure to take advantage of such situations when they presented themselves.   
  
Eleanor, on the other hand, was mostly quiet. While she did her best to keep her eyes on the cards that were in her hands and in the middle of the room, her glance did jump between Velvet and Rokurou. If the Eleanor of today could tell the Eleanor of the past that someday she’d go from hating daemons to lusting after them. Not only had this journey been an awakening in that regard, but it had reinforced Eleanor’s sexual identity. The more she stared at Velvet, the harder it was for Eleanor to simply ignore that side of her. Now, though, it was all about keeping her clothes on. Much like in terms of combat, she was willing to put up a teeth-gritting fight to achieve that.   
  
Out of the three of them, it was Magilou, who much to Velvet and Eleanor’s dismay, was the one who ended up losing. Unlike the two of them, she didn’t seem to share the shame of having to be exposed, with her attire being now tossed on top of the ever rising pile of clothes. Posing proudly with her hands on her hips, Magilou gave everyone a show by spinning around, ending it all with a wink dedicated to the Lord of Calamity. Velvet scoffed in response, but at the same time, in the corner of her eye she paid close attention to Magilou’s form. She wasn’t exactly blessed with the most feminine of curves, but she was still easy on the eyes. Pushing Rokurou and Eizen aside, Magilou hopped to sit between them.   
  
“Like what you see~?” Magilou cooed, her head tilting to look at Eizen and Rokurou respectively.   
  
“Well, she’s certainly not all that bad,” Rokurou commented, nudging his head towards Eleanor’s direction.   
  
Rolling her eyes, as she didn’t seem to get the attention or the answer that she had been after, Magilou folded her arms and turned her attention back to the game. Now, it was a duel.   
  
Much like back on that bridge, the exorcist and the daemon were once again face to face. The difference this time around was that their weapons weren’t clashing against one another, but rather their battle happened in their minds and with cards. This round was the slowest one yet, despite there being only two players. Every action was followed by a long silence, with the two of them staring each other down. This was a fight where neither of them could back down, and while the price wasn’t their lives like it had been in the past, both of them took this just as seriously as the fights that had unfolded between them in the past.   
  
It wasn’t like Eleanor to be stubborn, but after enough rounds of raising, it all came down to this. Neither her nor Velvet had that much on them, and with enough chips on the pile, now it came to lady luck to decide who’d be the clothed winner and who’d be the topless loser.   
  
Playing her part to keep the atmosphere tense, Magilou did her best to keep the reveal of the cards as dramatic as possible. Trying to keep it all exciting, with an agonizing slowness, she floated the final card at the end of the line, but hurried up when she felt Velvet nudging her again with her elbow. “Hey, I know you want a piece of this fine beauty, but wait until we’re done with this game first,” Magilou cooed.   
  
If it was just the two of them in this room right now, Velvet would have put Magilou’s mouth to better use, but for now, she was focused on bringing down her former adversary.   
  
When the cards were laid down, it came time for the two of them to reveal their hands. Both of them stared at each other before slowly revealing what they had.   
  
“Hmm, straight,” Velvet said, clearly rather happy with the hand she was able to achieve.   
  
Eleanor’s dismaying laugh, though, brought her down a notch, as her hand turned out to be flush. “You did good Velvet, but I win.”   
  
With a weary sigh, Velvet stood and started to pull down her red dress. In her excitement, Eleanor hopped into the air, loudly cheering for herself. She was so excited, that she didn’t seem to realize until it was way too late that due to her lack of supporting clothing, the top of her dress came down with each bounce until there wasn’t anything covering Eleanor’s waist. Her bra had been a victim of the match before, so now her scar and everything else was visible for all to see.   
  
“Ooh, that’s a nice scar!” Rokurou shouted while clapping.   
  
“That’s what you pay attention to?!” Magilou gasped in shock.   
  
Somehow it was enough to make all of them smile and laugh. Even Eleanor, who was doing her best to still cover herself up. Maybe this wasn’t a typical bonding experience, but at the end of the day, they all felt that much more connected to each other. After all, it was a lot easier to be honest and open with someone after seeing them naked.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written as a part of Berseria week event Day 7 Free Day   
> ( https://berseriaweek.tumblr.com/ ).
> 
> You can also find me at tumblr http://lordofspiritsandbazongas.tumblr.com/ If you have ideas, suggestions, feedback, comment, anything like that, feel free to contact me.


End file.
